Wednesday, March 20, 2013

12-13 Artifacts Box Break - UD made me nearly the perfect box!

I can honestly say when it comes to boxes, I love opening them. It really doesn't matter what the product is, or if there are hits or not. However, a rare thing happened to me a little while ago and that was I think I found the "perfect" box just for me. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and nothing is truly perfect, but this box that I opened I think was one of the best I could ever realistically hope for and though not everyone would think the box is amazing, I certainly did and do. I want to warn you that there are no hits here that will have collectors bidding 100's of dollars on or anything like that. Instead, it is a box when the sum of the parts are added, I feel like I had a huge success. So here we go...

This is a bit of a review at the same time so here is what the 12-13 Artifacts base cards look like:

The front

I am a huge fan of these cards. I love the ice surface background, the silver foil and the crisp player action shots. Definitely a set I want to complete, even if it means buying the whole base, non-sp set.

The back side

Love the design on the back too. The horizontal layout, a second photo, partial stats and a little write-up. Upper Deck, this is what Artifacts should look like, well done.

Now time for the hits...

Hit 1: Jordan Eberle Gold Parallel /25

What a start. A low number parallel hit of one of my favourite players in the NHL and is players I collect.

Hit 2: Team Canada Dustin Tokarski /999

I love that UD included Team Canada players and once again I landed another PC guy! Tokarski numbered to /999 isn't overly exciting to some, but I love this kid and hopefully he will get to the NHL a little faster now that he is in Montreal. I would never buy this card, but getting it in a pack is fun and I will of course be keeping it.

Hit 3: Chay Genoway Rookie /999

I think this hit belongs to someone else. This is the only hit in the box that doesn't belong, but then again it is a rookie and I LOVE rookies so at the very least I have a card I don't mind keeping. Truth is, there won't be many more cards made of this guy between now and his retirement so maybe I should enjoy his moment in the sun......maybe.

Hit 4: Frozen Artifacts Claude Giroux

Many many years ago, I saw Claude play hockey several times. He was actually in NOVICE and ATOM and I was the timekeeper for the games he would play in our town. I know this because I do remember him and back then he was a pretty solid player so I thought he might go somewhere.

Hit 5: Johnny Bower /999

Cool insert idea focusing entirely on goalies. There is certainly a lot of fans of goalies and goalie subsets. I am not one of them, but Mr. Bower is a class act and he gave me more than I bargained for with my TTM request so getting this card was loads of fun.

Hit 6: Tyson Barrie Rookie /999

Here is my second guaranteed rookie and I am very pleased with this one. Tyson was a former Team Canada World Junior and is a pretty solid prospect with the Avalanche. People might think I am crazy, I would take this over a Chris Kreider any day :)

Hit 7: Autographed Rookie Redemption IV /99

The hit of the box (and a case hit) in terms of value and potential. I like extended rookie cards and I love autographed extended rookie cards. I really can't wait to find out which guy I am going to get. It will be numbered to 99 which is awesome and I am going to find out who it is before I redeem as it might be more advantageous to move the card rather than keep it.

Hit 8: Tundra Tandems Jordan Staal and Eric Staal

Ahhh the Staal boys. We were all born in the same city and as a result I do like the two of them a great deal. I am still in need of an Eric Staal auto to go with my Jordan and Marc.

Hit 9: Anze Kopitar Game Jersey Parallel /125

Yet another player I really like. Numbered to /125 it isn't exceptionally rare, but I love the purple and black swatches and I really like the design of these cards.

Hit 10: Chicago Blackhawks Rookie Redemption

For those of you that don't know me, the Blackhawks have always been my "second" team. If the Devils are out or it is a Western Conference matchup, the Hawks are my team. It began with Belfour and ever since I just have always liked the team. Currently, Toews and Kane are the two guys I like the most and I will share more on that in another post, but this redemption again it tailor made for me as I certainly don't mind getting this card either. One thing worth noting though, we are through the midpoint of the season and there have been no new Hawks to enter the NHL who don't already have a rookie card so this card could end up being a wild-card. So with that being said, I am also waiting to redeem this one as well since it might be advantageous to move it as well.

So there you go, my box broken. I loved every moment of the break and all the hits were very welcomed. There wasn't any card in this break that really is going to make me rich, but at the same time I could very easily keep every card and be extremely happy with the overall break. I hope to buy another box or two of this stuff, but I have a feeling that will need to wait until the summer when I may convince my wife it would be a good birthday gift! Well thanks for reading, I also have an awesome pack break coming in the next few posts too.

5 comments:

Awesome box. It is always nice to open stuff and actually get cards that are part of your PC. Not too shabby on the "IV" rookie redemption either. Hopefully we don't get screwed on these as I'm holding onto my Florida Panthers one in hopes of landing a Huberdeau.

I opened up two boxes of Artifacts earlier this year, and absolutely loved both of them. For me, I'm not a rookie collector, so the fact that all four of my jersey/auto cards were of current or retired players really drew me in.

I'm not a big jersey guy but I've actually picked up a few from this set since I think they are so well done. I really like the dual swatch when they are different colors. This was a really nice break, hope they come through with the auto rookie.